Smith bound by SA constitution
November 8, 1990
Student Association Vice President Tanya Smith is bound by the group’s constitution to perform any extra jobs others request.
But Smith says she shouldn’t have to do what other executives tell her to do.
Smith said she has not attended recent staff meetings because the days were switched and it was an inconvenience. However, she said she did attend all of the staff meetings before the change.
“Executive staff meetings are an inconvenience for all of us,” said SA President Robert McCormack. “I don’t think anyone would argue with that,” he said, adding no one objected at the meeting when the decision to change the meeting day was made.
McCormack sent a memo to the staff Sept. 27 reminding them of meeting changes from Wednesday to Thursday. McCormack stated in the memo the meeting time was changed after he received all of the members’ schedules and saw no conflicts.
“Therefore, since all of us are professional proactive credible individuals, we will all be there from now on,” the memo stated.
Smith told the senate Sunday that it was not in her job description to attend the staff meetings. McCormack said attending the meetings is not part of anyone’s job description.
However, “we agreed to it as a group of newly-elected executives and appointed staff that as a reform measure, we would all be there because it’s a time when we can openly communicate, resolve any problems both between ourselves as individuals, or problems with issues and set our agenda and review our goals.”
Smith claimed, “Executives are not bound by other executives to do something.”
But according to Smith’s job description in the SA Constitution, the vice president must perform any additional functions assigned by the executive board or the senate.
Sen. Mike Ruderman said Smith is not willing to do anything other than the minimal expectations.
“Basically, you have a constitution that outlines a job of the vice president and she is going to follow that job description as much as possible,” he said.